Speaker: Rajendran Narayanan, Azim Premji University
Moderator: Nasreen Chowdhory, Assistant Professor, DU; Vice-President, Calcutta Research Group
Abstract:
India is witnessing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. There is a continuous surge in COVID cases on the one hand and a massive crisis of livelihood and food insecurity on the other. The unplanned lockdown, imposed unilaterally, has created an archive of distress, with the large unorganised workforce bearing the brunt of it. The majority of migrant workers returned home to their villages over the lockdown period and many are yet to return to cities. With limited employment opportunities in rural India, the only viable dignified livelihood option for many of these migrants as well as the rest of the rural poor, is the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA).
NREGA has been a lifeline for millions of rural poor. There is substantial scientific evidence demonstrating its positive impact in boosting rural incomes and in creating assets that have positive multiplier effects in the rural economy. However, over the past six years, the Government of India (GoI) under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has attempted to stifle the Act in letter and spirit.
Contrary to the oft-repeated claims, the programme has been routinely under-funded leading to massive delays in wage payments. This, among some other factors, has discouraged workers to take up NREGA work. In this talk, I will discuss the various ways in which the GoI has used technocratic means to subvert certain key provisions in the Act. Some of the findings to be presented in this talk were presented in the Supreme Court (SC) of India in the Swaraj Abhiyan Vs Union of India case concerning drought.
